


redamancy

by makiyakinabe



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 00:13:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13601439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makiyakinabe/pseuds/makiyakinabe
Summary: Magic, it seems, can bring together even the unlikeliest of couples.





	redamancy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reeby10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/gifts).



When a wizard or witch becomes of age, they'll find the name of their other half on the inside of their wrist. The name can belong to a friend, a person they've admired for considerable time, an acquaintance they've made small talk with once, a stranger they've never even met. It doesn't matter whether someone's got a vault full of gold or is down on their luck, whether they're as fit as Krum or looks like they've got Troll in their family somewhere, whether they've fought against You-Know-Who or have been in his inner circle and cosied up to his slimy arse like the bigoted git they are— _everyone_  gets a name on their wrist at the stroke of midnight.

"Your magic will call to their magic," Mum is fond of saying, time and again. "Your magic is a part of you, it knows what you're missing—that's the other half of you—and it'll draw you both towards one another. That's how it was for your father and I..."

Whatever she says after this point Ron doesn't know, this is his cue to try and leave the room as quickly as possible while doing his best not to gag because _Merlin_ , he does not need that mental image of Mum and Dad in Gryffindor robes, making eyes at each other across the table in the Great Hall.

Ron's heard the beginning of their great love story too many times to not know where this is going.

If Ron's to be honest with himself, though, there's a part of him that's always been fond of hearing Mum go on and on about the past. Of how she was drawn to Dad, and he to her, by an unseen yet not irresistible force that surely must be their own magic and the moment they laid their hands on one another's wrists, they felt a sense of wholeness like none other. The same has happened to Charlie and Predrag, Bill and Fleur, and Fred and George and Lee—Ron's seen the matching names on their wrists himself, and everyone knows there's no magic strong enough to erase or change them.

Which is why, ever since the name of his other half has appeared on his own wrist, Ron's developed the habit of running a finger along the words and aiming his frown at nowhere in particular.

How or why his magic has seen fit to decide that the half of him that's missing is _Draco Malfoy_ of all people, he has no idea.

Neither, it seems, does Malfoy.

They’ve been sneaking one another looks ever since they came back to Hogwarts for an additional eighth year, Ron trying to burn holes into Malfoy’s poncy face with the force of his glare and Malfoy in turn shooting him unreadable looks and the occasional cocked eyebrow.

It's been like that for all the eighth years actually. They'd come of age during a time of war, after all. What with Dumbledore's death, the fall of the Ministry, Muggleborns being rounded up and thrown in Azkaban and Hogwarts herself coming under the thumb of Snape and the Carrows, it was hardly the time for romance—particularly when your other half was revealed to be someone in league with You-Know-Who.

And now, with the war over, it seems like everyone's eager to make up for lost time. Neville had strode up to where Harry stood in the Great Hall after everything was over, a determined gleam in his eyes, and bared the name on his wrist as he held the Sword of Gryffindor out for Harry to take back, and they've inseparable since. Hermione and Percy had a word at Fred Weasley's funeral and now they've taken to owling each other at least a letter a day. Ginny found Lavender on the Hogwarts Express on the first of September and since then they'd moved everywhere as one, walking along corridors with arms linked and heads bent towards one another in private conversation.

Magic, it seems, can bring together even the unlikeliest of couples.

But still. Draco Malfoy. Of all the possible wizards or witches in the world towards whom he could've been pulled, and vice versa, why did it have to be him?

”Talk to him,” Hermione says. “He hasn’t been that bad this year.” They’ve broken up since he returned to the Forest of Dean, restless and ashamed, and they wordlessly showed one another the names on their wrists. Hermione had understood, then, her face crumpling the moment her eyes fell on his name. Percy had been a right git at the time, siding first with Scrimgeour and then working as Thicknesse's lackey without a peep of protest. But he’s since come around.

Draco bloody Malfoy, however, will always be Marked by Lord Snakeface. Even if Harry has spoken up for him at his and his mother’s trials.

Ron hates Malfoy. Hates his prissy face, hates how he’s kept to himself and is never seen with another Slytherin eighth year, how he walks around unbothered by everyone’s glares as though he’s got a right to be here, at Hogwarts, when he was the one who let Greyback and the rest of the Death Eaters into Hogwarts. How his eyes slide across the room to meet Ron's and find him wanting, even though _he's_ the one who made that desperate, pitiful attempt to sell Ron, Harry and Hermione to the Death Eaters the second after they saved him from the Fiendfyre that destroyed the Room of Requirement.

But there’s something about Mafoy that draws his eye, even if he hates the git with every fiber of his being. They keep meeting in hallways without meaning to, bumping shoulders as they walked the other way.

”Stop following me,” growls Ron, pressing Malfoy into the wall of a deserted corridor where they meet yet again. He puts the tip of his wand to Malfoy’s neck and means to use a Stinging Hex, only to find his eyes drawn to Malfoy’s lips instead.

When their lips mash together in a violent kiss, Malfoy bites his lip so hard it draws blood. Yet for some reason, Ron doesn’t mind.


End file.
